Gudmundur G. Thórarinsson is an civil
engineer and former MP of Althingi - The Icelandic Parliament and a
member of Reykjavik City Council. He has served on several governmental
committees and has been a member of The European Council. Thorarinsson
is the former President of the Icelandic Chess Federation and was the
chairman of the Organizing Committee of the historical World Chess
Championship Match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykavik
1972.

GGTH has written several articles about the works of Shakespeare and
lectured on various subjects e.g. the origin of the Icelanders and the
Icelandic Sagas and even on Jesus Christ in The New Testament. Now he
has written an most interesting article on the unique chessmen found on
the isle of Lewis 1830 and put forward new arguments and clues that
seem to have been overlooked. His hypothesis is that these chessmen are
in fact made in Iceland somewhere around the year 1200.

Sometime around the year 1830 there were found on the sandy shore of the
Isle of Lewis, one of the isle of Outer Hebrides, chess pieces
believed to be made before year 1200.

The chessmen are mostly made of walrus tusks and most people agree that
they are a great work of art. These are the oldest chessmen with the
feature of modern chessmen. In the name of The British Museum there
have been issued many pamphlets and DVD discs where the museum regards
the chessmen among its most remarkable relics.

This year there is an exhibition in cooperation of The National Museum
of Scotland and the British Museum in Edinburg and a seminar with
participation of scholars where the mystery and the origin of these
chessmen are the main subject. Until now the the historians seem to
find it most likely that the chessmen originate from Throndheim, Norway.

In the following composition on the origin of the Lewis Chessmen, which
will appear in the 2010 Yearbook of Iceland´s Society of Archaeology,
G.G. Thorarinsson puts forward a new and interesting theory about this
enigma and on their origin, supported be new facts and clues.

Among other notable points GGTH argues that chess is a war game. The
Lewis chessmen are the first and the only pieces where the game of chess
is connected with the church as one of the pieces is carved in the
image of a bishop.

The word bishop for a chess piece is only used in two languages,
Icelandic and English. In old Icelandic manuscripts written in the 13th
and 14th century we read about bishop in chess. According to Oxford
dictionaries the word bishop in chess comes into the English language
around year 1470, long after the carving of the Lewis chessmen. In most
other languages including Norvegian this piece was and is still called a
runner.

Therefore it seems that at 1150-1200 no nation except the Icelanders had
connected the game of chess with the bishops or the church. The only
other language that uses bishop in chess is English but only after 1450
that is to say when their connection with Iceland was lively. The
Icelanders use the term “The English Century” for the period 1400-1500.

In Iceland there was no king and the power was mostly in the hands of
the bishops. It seems that their pride told them that the chessman at
the side of the king should be a bishop. It is clear that the Icelandic
bishops had smithies and engaged goldsmiths and craftsmen, many of which
learn their skills overseas. Iceland was the center of commerce with
Greenland which resulted in riches and enabled the Icelanders to write
their sagas.

The manuscripts point to that the Icelanders not only wrote the Sagas
but also excelled in ornament and carving as can be proven and seen at
the National Museum of Iceland.
http://www.natmus.is/english/permanent-exhibition/

British Museum publications theorise that the Lewis chessmen
were carved in Trondheim, Norway, where facilities and tools for such
work were available and where the patterns on the pieces were most
fashionable at the time. Furthermore, they conclude that the chessmen
were most likely buried on the Lewis shore by a merchant who intended to
retrieve them later. In 1832, a year after the pieces were first
exhibited, the English archaeologist Francis Madden wrote an article,
Historical Remarks on the Ancient Chessmen discovered in the Isle of
Lewis, where he advances the hypothesis that the chessmen were carved in
Iceland before the year 1200. This theory has met with little
enthusiasm.

In his recently published comprehensive article G.G.
Thórarinsson puts forward the hypothesis that the Lewis chessmen were
probably carved in Iceland and presents e.g. the following
circumstantial evidence in support of his new theory about their origin.

1) The word “bishop” does not seem to
have been used for chessmen in Norway at any point in history. This word
only occurs in Icelandic and English. Written records show that the
word “bishop” was used in Iceland around 1300 and in England in the late
15th century. Records indicate that the word “alfin” fell out of use in
English around 1475, after which the chess piece was exclusively known
as a bishop. When the Lewis chessmen were carved, these pieces were only
known as bishops in Iceland. They were probably carved in Iceland at
the behest of a bishop who thought it appropriate that pieces closest to
the king and queen be bishops. Should this prove correct, then the
English adopted the word “bishop” for a chess piece from Icelanders.
Historians points out that the timing of this change coincides with the
so-called English century (1400–1500), when trade and interaction with
the English was at its zenith. He then asks whether it can be
ascertained where this usage was first adopted, whether it may have been
in Bristol, for example, or other hometowns of companies that traded in
Iceland at the time.

2) The knights are mounted on horses that seem
Icelandic in both size and head shape.

3) The rooks are berserkers, who figure
prominently in contemporary Icelandic writings but are not known from
written works in Norway at the time. In Norway this piece was and still
is called a torn (tower).

4) Decorative art and carving were highly developed in Iceland at
this time. Many examples are known of Icelandic bishops’ sending or
bringing fine gifts carved from walrus tusks to foreigners. Artists,
goldsmiths, and master carvers were employed at the bishops’ seats, and
written records state outright that walrus tusk was among their raw
materials.

5) Iceland had a strong connection to Greenland
at this time. Icelanders settled Greenland with a large fleet of ships,
and these Greenlanders had many friends and relatives in Iceland.
Records describe bishops’ ships that brought goods from Greenland at
that time. This connection was severed when Icelanders lost their fleet
of seaworthy ships. Icelanders thus had access to walrus tusks and other
raw materials from Greenland.

6) A ship from Iceland carrying the Lewis
chessmen could have been shipwrecked near the Isle of Lewis on its way
to Dublin but the cargo been saved. It is telling that the men are from
four chess sets, none of which are complete, which indicates that a
number of pieces were lost. Perhaps more pieces remain buried there in
the sand. Icelanders sold a great deal of their exports in Ireland,
because in Norway they were required to pay a toll.

7) In The Saga Writing of the Oddi Clan, Einar
Ólafur Sveinsson, professor at The University of Iceland, advances the
hypothesis that men from the Oddi clan wrote Orkneyinga saga, the
History of the Earls of Orkney. A friendship existed between Bishop Páll
and the Earls of Orkney at this time, and there was considerable
communication between them; there are stories of gifts’ being exchanged.
From there the Outer Hebrides are not far off.

8) One might even entertain the notion that the
Lewis chessmen were made at the request of Bishop Páll of Skálholt and
carved by Margrét the Adroit whose carving skills were the stuff of
legend. The pieces were then sent abroad for sale or as a gift, but the
ship was then lost.